Thoughtful Thursday

Way back in the Ming Dynasty, when I was in Grade 9, I had the most amazing English teacher I would ever encounter.

I do not think that this was solely my opinion, as evidenced by the fact that in all the years after we graduated from Junior High, most of his students would return to his classroom to say hi and hang out. Some still hang with him to this day.

Mr. White is the fine gentleman responsible for awakening my appreciation of words and context and the power they hold. He made us willingly listen to John Denver and Roger Whitaker, and parse the meaning behind the words. That he could captivate an entire class of hormone-riddled, attention-deficit, moronic teenagers was nothing short of a miracle. But he did. Effortlessly.

During one of our post- JH visits, when my friend and I were having a 'Que Sera, Sera' moment with Mr. W, he told us that he saw Leanne as "a do-er". She would eventually find a life path that had her in the midst of the crowd.

These days, Leanne is a massage therapist. Score one for Mr. White.

He told me, much to my chagrin, that I was "an observer"; that I would hang back and listen and sponge it all in. I wish he could have been a little more specific as to how I would eventually regurgitate all of this information back out; at the time I didn't ask because I was kind of pissed off by his opinion. I wanted to be a do-er.

All these years later, I still wonder - Did Mr. White have magical powers or was he just saying what he thought we wanted to hear? I haven't a clue.

What I do know is that I love to listen. Plop me in the middle of a group, and I will just fade into a corner and observe, observe, observe. It, to me, is absolutely fascinating.

Today's TT speaks for itself - a love letter to all whom I know, all whom I have recently met, and all that I hope to one day meet:

"The tiniest
Story in your
Life can
Deeply
Touch another
You cannot
know
The effect
Your story
Might Have"
Sark

Thoughtful Thursday

Well, I don't know about you, but there are very few people on the face of God's green earth who are more looking forward to the calendar clicking over from today to tomorrow than yours truly.

Ah, Spring.

I did see a robin bob-bob-bobbin' along in my back yard last week - this has always been my own personal indicator of Spring.

And then?

It snowed.

Wah.

But tomorrow? It is official.

People will be accountable.

(Mostly weatherman - but do they really count?)(I'll talk about these "meteorologists " -which rank right up there with "mixologists" and "scatologists" - some other day... )

We all recognize that one of the most disheartening things about the weather is its unpredictability. We are left, most times, being reactive rather than proactive to what befalls us.

But it recently occurred to me that one of the other things that is so troubling about inclement weather is its enormity.

There is nothing like raging winds and driving sleet to make one feel like a mere speck in the grand scheme of things. It is easy to feel lost and inconsequential.

I'm hoping that today's quote from SARK will give you the comfort and warmth you need, when she tells you:

You are seen
You are known
You are loved

May your tomorrow be filled with a flock of robins, a splash of crocuses, and a feeling of renewal.

Thoughtful Thursday

When I was on my huge self-help kick a few years back, I became smitten with a particular bookstore close to one the beaches near my home.

At a time when my guts roiled daily, the sound of the ebb and flow of the water could have been calming enough.

But then, on top of that, to enter this shorefront bookstore was an extra ahhhhhhhh. As soon as I crossed the threshold, and took in that big whiff of new books and potential, I was peacefully quieted.

It was here that I first read the words of Susan Ariel Rainbow Kennedy, known to her beloved readers as simply SARK.

This lovely woman had a tough go of things early on, and from those times of retreating inward, she gestated this amazing spirit - she speaks to you as if she has known and loved you forever, and she is always there to gently urge you to stop beating yourself up, to move onward and upward.

She has a new book out: "Juicy Pens and Thirsty Paper: Gifting the World with your Words and Stories and Creating the Time and Energy to Actually Do It".

Her myspace page is here.

If the titleof the book wasn't enough to draw you in, how about this quote, which I'm quite sure will resonate with quite a few of us:

"You dare...to write your life. You dare to be viewed and projected upon as wildly successful and ingenious. To write yourself open. To write through the closures and scars and insecurities and sometimes loud voices that repeatedly say: How Dare you? and answer just as profoundly This is How I Dare."

Let's all attempt, in our own unique fashions, to be daring today.